Pixley Dell Nursery

What is it like to attend this early years setting?

Children thrive on the warm greetings they receive from staff, who they have strong emotional attachments to. Children demonstrate that they feel safe and secure. They enjoy playing together imaginatively. For example, children make staff a pretend birthday cake in the engaging kitchen area outdoors. Staff teach children how food items contribute to living a healthy lifestyle. For example, children grow tomatoes and carrots, which will be used for their snacks and lunches. Children show awe and wonder as they observe and talk about beans they have planted to make a beanstalk. Children are sociable and exhibit excellent behaviour.

Children progress well in their learning. Staff provide them with wealth of challenging and motivating activities and outings. For example, they encourage children to explore scented play dough mixed with lemons and oranges. Staff take children on purposeful trips into the community, such as to the library and nature reserves. Young children concentrate intently as they explore water with flowers in it. Staff support children to develop their senses and talk about the scents. Children enjoy looking at their family books. All children, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities, gain a broad range of knowledge and skills for their future learning.

What does the early years setting do well and what does it need to do better?

• Children follow routines well and are well settled. They demonstrate excellent independence skills. For example, children from a young age wipe their noses independently and help themselves to water at the hydration stations. Older children peel and chop their own fruit and vegetables for snack. Staff encourage children to help with small tasks, such as setting up the plates and cups for lunch. This helps children to gain a sense of responsibility. Older children confidently serve themselves at lunchtime.
• Staff provide opportunities for children to develop good communication and language skills. For example, staff ask children questions about their play and children respond appropriately. Children enjoy joining in with favourite stories. Staff repeat words and listen attentively to children as they contribute ideas to play. For example, older children pretend to call staff on their imitation mobile phones.
• Staff deepen children's knowledge during activities. They plan exciting activities around a breadth of topics and children's interests. For example, children dig for dinosaurs and fossils in sand. Staff regularly assess all children's development. They closely monitor children's development who are in receipt of funding. Staff put plans into place to close any gaps in children's development and, overall, children make good progress. However, staff do not organise some group activities well enough to ensure that all children can fully engage and benefit from the learning opportunities.
• The manager evaluates the ongoing performance of the nursery. Staff attend regular supervision sessions and meetings, where they discuss and share information. Staff feel they receive good support and are given meaningful professional development opportunities. For example, staff in the baby room have completed training on safer sleeping. Staff in the nursery have also enhanced their knowledge of how to manage children's behaviour.
• Staff help children to develop good mathematical skills. They encourage older children to use hooks to catch numbered plastic ducks in the water. Children paint numbers onto paper and count wooden blocks as they build towers. Children count footprints in sand, made by pretend dinosaurs. Staff support children well to develop skills for the next stage in their learning, such as school.
• Children receive tailored settling-in sessions to ensure that they feel happy and secure from the start. Parents describe staff as 'friendly' and 'caring'. They comment that they are happy with the level of care their children receive. Staff have developed a lending library, which encourages parents to help support children's literacy skills at home. However, staff do not use opportunities fully to inform parents of ways they can support their children's individual next steps in learning at home.
• Staff support children to develop very good health and well-being. They provide a home-made, healthy and nutritious menu. Staff plan opportunities for children to have regular exercise and all children learn about the importance of brushing their teeth. Children regularly discuss their feelings and staff remind children to be kind to each other and to share.

What the setting must and should do next

The provider should:

• consider more closely how to adapt group activities to ensure that all children can fully engage and benefit from the learning opportunities
• provide parents with more support and advice to help guide their children's learning at home.